The Tobacco Reference Guide

by David Moyer, MD.


Chapter 30 Tobacco farmers

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During flue curing, the green tobacco leaf is kept at high temperatures for about a

week. Affluent nations use oil or gas as fuel, but third world nations use wood.

Worldwide, about 2.5 million tons of tobacco are flue cured each year with wood.

Tobacco growing thus requires the destruction of forests and results in adverse

environmental impact in some developing countries where tobacco production is

encouraged, often at the expense of staple food crops.

AMA Fact Sheet on Smoking

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The cost of tobacco constitutes only about 8% of the retail price of each pack of

cigarettes. This translates to a total cost of about $2 billion per year for the 24 billion

packs of cigarettes made for domestic consumption, much less than the $5.3 billion

"overhead" for advertising and promotion.

Journal of the National Cancer Institute, March 16, 1988, p. 83

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About 35% of US-grown tobacco is exported. In 1990, about 137,000 farms (down

from 179,000 in 1987) grew tobacco on an estimated 763,000 acres.

Tobacco Use: An American Crisis, p. 84

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In 1952, US tobacco manufacturers bought 1.6 billion pounds of tobacco from US

farmers. By 1994, this had dropped to 0.8 billion pounds. In the same period,

imported tobacco increased from 10% to 40% in American cigarettes despite 150

million pounds of surplus stockpiled tobacco that was bought up at double the price of

imported tobacco.

Videotape "The Tobacco Trap"

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